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Oct 16, 2019
I was really hoping this would be something that would click with me, but just like the last time I tried to watch it when it was new in 2013, it just doesn't.
The female-on-male violence felt like animal abuse at first until I realized that you are meant to insert as the dog. So the dog is us submissives, metaphorically. That's fine, but this anime just doesn't work. It's described as a "nonsense comedy mystery" and it does try to be those things, but it's not good at any of them. The nonsense is not particularly interesting, it's not really funny, and it's mystery is
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just a series of vignettes in the shape of a mystery that are progressively less focused than the one the preceded it- finding the killer from the restaurant, finding the slasher / who is targeting Akiyama Shinobu, and and that's it.
Kirihime herself is exactly my type, but mentally she's immature compared a similar looking adult beauty like Sakurako from Beautiful Bones or Yuuko the witch from xxxHolic. Hell, I feel more M energy listening to Yuuko talking normally to Watanuki that I do from most of this anime's "punishment" scenes, most of which involve the dog being shaved in a flash or off camera, or maybe running from a thrown blade. Not much to be excited about at all, unless you want to be stabbed. Most of the punishments are for calling Kirihime flat, which is as stale as they get as an excuse for violence. I can overlook this, but when an anime fails to excite me, grating cliches like this become tiring. 1/3 of all Slayers OVA dialogue is Lina Inverse's supposed lack of bust, yet Slayers anime are so good on the whole it doesn't get grating, while here it does, with "flat-chest" seeming to come out of MC's mouth every 5 seconds. All of the characters are basically gimmicks, who never deviate far from their stock dialogue- Maxi-sama is always shining, Hami is always threatening to kill herself with a fountain pen- at least Suzuna has varied dialogue for her one-note masochism, a gimmick that somehow makes her feel even more obsessed with pain and humiliation than Darkness from Konosuba - Darkness at least knows how to draw limits. That said, Suzuna was probably the next best character after Kirihime, since the Mistress / Slave play is at least the most gratifying S/M-themed content in this anime.
It's hard to care about anything when the characters are just so flat; the character artwork is pretty nice, eg. the killer maid; so it's a shame the anime is just kinda painful and cringey. Eg. the recurring joke characters, from which humor is supposed to derive from their appearance I guess - afro man, the cat-girl landlady, the muscle bros- "lol so random, amirite?") For example, that third author, that maid's mistress: ok, let's just keep cameo-ing this girl none of the characters have met in person and we the audience know nothing about. Am I supposed to care about this girl?
I do wonder if watching this at a different time of day or in a different state of mind would have changed anything. It's possible the dub might have at least given me better mileage and I might have squeezed more enjoyment from this anime if Kirihime's lines went straight to my brain instead being mediated through text. But I think this is a result of me being disappointed that I couldn't like an anime that is offering a dominant waifu. But, bear in mind, one dominant waifu, two if you can count a yandere imouto- while Princess Resurrection, to its credit at least, has three dominant waifus.
If you want to see an anime that involves a relationship between a dog and his mistress that's less painful, see Kennel Tokorozawa, which was self-aware enough to have hired a prominent comedian in the role of the dog. And at least Kennel Tokorozawa had the decency to be a 45 minute OVA. As for dominant waifus, there are better anime out there for that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Dec 29, 2018
Speaking as a big Dirty Pair fan, it's really amazing how much of disappointment Project Eden is. The animation is smooth, I guess, and the intro, Yuri's impromptu dance (now a famous vaporwave gif), the "over the top" song sequence, and the Streamline dub Wattsman's VA is about all I like about this particular Dirty Pair franchise entry.
Let's start with the bath that results in Kei, Yuri and Carson doing Kill la Kill before that was a thing for most of this movie. While they actually became pretty professional by the end of the TV series, Kei and Yuri are still a
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couple of dimbulbs (and I mean that in the most affectionate way) but even early TV series Kei and Yuri wouldn't take a bath in radioactive abandoned mine water.
But what I don't really like about this movie is that once Carson gets (re) introduced in the mine, the Pair seem to take a backseat in driving the story. Carson leads the Pair around; they tend to respond to him instead of driving the situation themselves and putting the men in the backseat, as is the usual dynamic in the TV series. For a good portion of the film Kei is off with Carson and Yuri has no dialogue as she looks around for them (though the Xenomorph skin she wears is a nice touch). The result of all this is that, crucially, the banter and camaraderie between Kei and Yuri is absent from the majority of this film, producing something rather joyless compared to any episode of the TV series.
What's even more offensive is the cheesy romance angle between Kei and Carson. The TV series Lovely Angels' relationships with men are comically bad and these experiences continually reaffirm the bond between Kei and Yuri. Seeing Kei getting flustered and tsundere with this Carson guy just doesn't sit right with me, it's not what I expect from girls who've been making jokes about oral sex and giving each other their 'leftover' men (25 years before Panty and Stocking did it!). The sexual confidence and savvy dealing with men that characterizes Kei and Yuri is simply not here.
This movie is just not fun or funny, and if this is someone's first exposure to Dirty Pair I would understand why they wouldn't be impressed by it - the movie's Kei and Yuri just feel generic and, crucially, they don't even feel like the main players in their own movie when the staff has given so much attention to Carson and Wattsman. Project Eden is not representative of what makes the Dirty Pair great characters. Kei and Yuri really deserved a rollicking action comedy epic - like many episodes of the TV/OVA series are- instead of this rather dull affair.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 27, 2015
Despite a few extraordinary contributions, the pulp crime genre is one that anime does not do particularly well. I felt compelled to write this review of Gangsta because of the many unwarranted comparisons to Black Lagoon. Gangsta is nothing like Black Lagoon, and it will be especially disappointing to watch with such an expectation.
If you want to watch pulp crime involving heists, car chases, and briefcases full of guns, cash and drugs, well that's not this anime. Gangsta has no grounding in real world politics or criminal activity. In fact, the mob families seem uninterested in any actual criminal activity, outside
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of episode 1, and some mobsters, like Miss Christiano (the Tohsaka Rin of mafia bosses), seems so goodhearted as to be a downright pillar of the community.
You may be disappointed to find that Gangsta has no relationship to reality at all, set in a fictional city with a past that does not fit into our real-world history. Many of the characters are superpowered humans called Twilights, and the story arcs are driven by the existence of Twilights and how humans interact with them - as opposed to something that is more grounded in real world situations and groups- like say, looting a Nazi submarine for fun and profit.
Gangsta is also not a fast-paced action-movie roller coaster, but rather has languid pacing. This could make for a fine noir tone, but except for Nico, Worrick and Alex's flashbacks, Gangsta has neither good writing nor execution.
The entire series felt disjointed and fragmented, with the characters aimlessly shuffling through one poorly animated, forgettable vignette to the next. Conflict built up from episodes 9 to 11 ends anticlimactically, with an final episode that fails to resolve the remaining plot threads.
It was very difficult to maintain any interest week by week, let alone care about minor characters that suddenly begin to "matter."
Gangsta has no soundtrack to speak of, which only makes the show an even more low-key affair and frankly, the OP is better than some episodes.
The artwork begins on the cheap side of average, with uninteresting backgrounds, and suffers increasingly egregious off-model shots in both fight scenes and dialogue (such as episodes 8 and 9). Poor art can be forgiven if other elements fall into place, but that is not the case here.
Gangsta has some clever moments, mostly Alex's character development, Nico's unique character and his past with Worrick. But the rest of the storylines unfold clumsily with no sense of urgency, drama or resolution.
A comparison between Gangsta's 12 episodes and Black Lagoon's first cour reveals the difference in quality. The last episodes of Black Lagoon's first cour tie into and build upon themes of belonging that are raised beginning with episode 3, and ends on a self-contained high note with arc resolution and character development for its female and male leads. All things considered, maybe it's lucky Manglobe's storyboarding team have just managed to stumble the show as far along as they have, unlike Bones and their handling of Blood Blockade Battlefront earlier this year.
Gangsta is probably better compared and contrasted with Darker than Black. Both Darker than Black and Gangsta feature superpowered humans that work in the criminal underworld as a result of their superpowers. Darker than Black offers noirish story arcs rather than action movie pacing. Ultimately, both Gangsta and Darker than Black are about pleas for acceptance of the different and marginalized (Darker than Black's "Contractors").
However, Darker than Black features clever writing and compact, film noir storylines while Gangsta does not. Darker than Black grounds its science fiction elements in real world politics, locations, and organizations, enough that character motivations and situations make sense despite the vague handwaving of how people acquired their powers. It's a much better execution of a similar sci-fi/crime hybrid concept.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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